Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Speaking of celebrating, there was ateam from Omaha that celebrated a championship not
three days ago, right here inour fair city. And that is the
Omaha Supernovas from the Pro Volleyball Federationstraight sets victory over Grand Rapids to clinch
the first ever Pro Volleyball Federation title. The trophy is sitting right next to
(00:21):
Matt Case. It weighs almost asmuch as Matt Case. Almost. Yeah,
gigantic thing. And we are blessedto be joined by outside hitter for
the Supernova's Brook Nunneviller here in thestudio and Brook, welcome into the studio.
Thanks for stopping by. Oh yeah, thanks for having me. Okay,
I that is not a joke.No, it's not. The way
of that thing is actually insane.Just carrying it for my car, I'm
(00:43):
like out of breath. This isa I kind of It adds a little
bit of the mystique of like whata league is, right because you see
some of these upstart leagues in asport like professional volleyball, which it's been
a while since anybody's really given thisa real go in the United States.
It's a thing overseas a lot moreorganized. But this just you know,
(01:03):
tells me how much the people whoare in charge of the legally want to
invest in this. And obviously thecity of Omaha invested into this, playing
at CCHI Health Center, selling ten, ten to twelve thousand tickets every single
match. What about this from yourperspective, because you're a professional volleyball player,
made this a legitimate league in itsfirst year. I think I really
(01:25):
didn't know what to expect. Youknow, I got my first phone call
in May of twenty twenty three,just under a year ago now, and
I was just so incredibly impressed withhow quickly things came together. I knew
that Omaha would bring a lot ofsupport, you know. I think the
community really just are avid volleyball fans, and it's really exciting for a player
like me to play in Omaha.But our owners honestly just gave us a
(01:48):
tremendous amount of support. I mean, they're investing millions of dollars into our
team, and it's really exciting becauseoriginally they're not looking for a return.
But I think, you know,we've done a pretty good job at bringing
fans to stadium, selling tickets,and you know, doing things like this
and we're getting marketing up and Idon't know, it's just been really exciting
and the support has been incredible.We talk on this show a lot about
(02:10):
sports because I love sports. Ialso love community events and having local teams,
you know, like minor league baseballor local colleges. It makes it
really fun to follow and you feellike you have a team. Omaha being
one of the original markets that theywanted to build this pro Volleyball federation,
you know, and we asked,you know, Diane menden Hall this and
(02:31):
I've talked to Jeff Eckstrom about this. It really is the epicenter of volleyball
in this country in so many ways. And the Volleyball Day in Nebraska I
think was the quint essential moment whereyou've packed in ninety three thousand people to
watch a collegiate volleyball match. Fromyour perspective, and we'll talk about exactly
(02:53):
how you ended up here for thisleague. But what does Omaha have that
makes it so special for a volleyballaudience. I think the University of Nebraska
honestly kicks started that They've been sucha successful team for I don't know decades
now, and I mean, youlook at the ninety three thousand people that
showed up for a college game,that's insane. It broke world records.
(03:15):
And so for that to happen thislast year, and then for us to
get the opportunity to start a proleague in the same year, I think
is the reason why we had somuch success. And we already knew that
because of the University of Nebraska thatwe had that volleyball support, we had
those volleyball fans, but we didn'tknow how it would carry over to our
team, and we were very pleasantlysurprised when it was so successful. Speaking
(03:36):
with Brooke Nunnevillar, who plays forthe Omaha Supernova's an attacking position. It's
something you need if you want tohave a successful team. You're not the
only one. There are a lotof really great players. The quality of
play was like, we want thebest volleyball players available at the professional level
to play in this league. Andit's kind of a new concept for a
lot of Americans to see, Oh, professional volleyball. How did this happen?
(04:00):
And you're a young person, soI'm not one hundred percent sure if
everybody's story is going to be exactlythe same. But take me through your
volleyball journey from college and what itlooked like to try to turn pro knowing
there wasn't an established league at thatpoint, and then when they were trying
to create an established league, howyou became on the short list of people
they wanted to recruit to be apart of this. This is a really
(04:23):
interesting question because no one really knows, you know, professional volleyball in the
States, and now that they've gottena little tidbit, which is really exciting.
But before this year, it hadalways been overseas. And so the
way that my career, I guess, has looked since college is I graduated
in December of twenty twenty two fromthe University of Oregon, and then you
basically signed with an agent, youknow, and most of the agents that
(04:45):
you're signing with are overseas. Somy agent, his name is Stefano Bartocci.
He's an Italian agent. He representsa ton of Italian players, but
also a ton of American players.You signed with your agent and then they'll
start getting contracts for you. Youknow. I was looking at con originally
in Turkey in Italy, and Iended up going to finish a half season
in Turkey in Bursa, Turkey forJanuary of twenty twenty four until May of
(05:09):
twenty twenty four. So did that. I played with the national team a
little bit. I don't know ifyou've heard of Athletes Unlimited, but it's
a league that is about two anda half months and it has sports like
volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, andI'm missing one, but there's there's four
total sports. And so I gotto play in that league. It was
actually in Arizona where I grew upin the fall, so I did that
(05:30):
and then I was lucky enough tobe in Omaha Supernova. But basically,
when you're signing with the team,it usually goes through an agent and then
they're offering you a contract and you'rejust gonna, you know, decide if
you want to take that or not. Really intriguing, you have to sign
with an agent from overseas. Howdo you find the right agent? Is
there like a language barrier? Probablynot considering that they would sign so many
(05:53):
Americans, But you know, Iwould guess in my head that there are
a lot of young girls that don'teven know that this is an option until
they achieve elite status in college atthe NCAA level. Is that kind of
how that worked and how did youdecide, Okay, this person is the
person I want to represent me tohelp me figure out what my career is
(06:15):
going to look like. There aredefinitely American agents as well, Don't get
me wrong, there's plenty of them, but there's also a ton overseas,
just because that's where the established leagueshave been around the world. For me,
I'm not even gonna lie. Evenfor any top college player, we
were not very aware of professional volleyballoverseas. You really have to do research
yourself. I was talking to somany girls that were on the national team
(06:38):
and I was lucky enough to playwith them this summer before I went professional,
and I got to pick their brainsa ton about you know, who
are their agents? But do youthink of them? What have you heard
of them? And so I feellike I got a pretty good idea when
I was talking to different agents,and I probably talked to at least ten
different people before I made my decision, but yeah, I ended up choosing
mine. I've been really happy withhim, and this league has been interesting
(07:00):
because now you have that home basein America and now it's kind of interesting
going to talk to an overseas agentand then coming back to America. So
hopefully in the future we'll be ableto work more closely with them and we'll
bring more international attention here. Soyou know, it's not as big of
a barrier now, but I don'tknow. We have a league in America
and we're going to have to startrecognizing that. Sure. I want to
(07:23):
talk about the league in America,how you ended up with the Supernova specifically,
and then the season that led toa championship. We'll do that next,
So stick around. We're here withBrook Nunna Villa from the Omaha Supernova's,
the champions of the Pro Volleyball Federation. That's on the way coming up
on news Radio eleven ten Kfab andMariesung on news Radio eleven ten Kfab part
(07:46):
of a celebration of the championship forthe Omaha Supernova's in the Pro Volleyball Federation
this past weekend, and we're joinedby outside hitter Brooke Nunna Villa. And
Brook, you said, you graduatedfrom the University of Oregon turn pro.
You went to Turkey for a fewmonths, got the call to become an
Omaha super Nova. Again, I'mnot one hundred percent sure exactly how a
(08:11):
lot of that stuff works when itcomes to starting a league from complete scratch,
But how were you, you know, kind of asked it and were
you given options of teams to signwith or was it a team specifically that
was reaching out to you and justtrying to give you the best contract possible
to get you to be a partof the team. It was definitely both,
So, I mean, I wasnot very aware of what this league
would look like. I had barelyeven heard of it when I originally got
(08:35):
the texts from It was Shelton Callyerat the time for the Omaha Supernova's head
coach, and I think I hadoriginally heard about the league in January of
twenty twenty four, just very briefly. And then twenty three. You mean
it's twenty twenty. No, yes, twenty because he started playing in twenty
twenty four. No, twenty twentythree, or way is this twenty twenty?
Oh my gosh, this time,yes, you're right, twenty twenty
(08:58):
three. That it's like, wow, that they gave you time. Oh
my goodness, it's all a Hayesat this point. But in twenty twenty
three. Yes, I had originallyheard about the league in January and then
I got that phone call in May, and honestly, I was really strongly
considering going back overseas. The moneywas good, the level of competition was
great. What say atmosphere like,is it like well attended and there's a
lot of you know, fans thatare really passionate about the teams. There
(09:20):
are a lot of fans that arevery passionate about the teams. But I
will give you like a statistic thatI saw the other day. It was
top ten attendances a professional volleyball inthe world, Omaha Supernova's crush number one.
I think we averaged about ninety fivehundred this year. The second most
was the best team in Italy thisyear and they were at forty five hundred.
Wow, unbelievable. Yeah, it'spretty incredible what we were able to
(09:43):
do in this inaugural season. AndI think overseas it's just you don't have
that like big gym capacity. Youknow, you don't have a CCHI Center
like we did, and not aton of big arenas. But the fan
support is definitely there. But anyway, when I was talking to the previous
head coach at the time, itwas really interesting because I just hadn't heard
a lot about the league, andhe really sold me in a lot of
(10:03):
things, and I just didn't knowwhat this would become. But he gave
me a lot of faith in thatit could become something really big, which
it ended up being. And soI'm very grateful for this opportunity. And
basically how I got recruited as Igot a text from him, we had
a phone call, a contract camepretty shortly after, and then I signed
and then nine months later I wasin Omaha. You didn't get did any
(10:24):
other teams reach out to you?There was that Columbus head coach had,
But then Shelton beat me to aphone call, and you know, I
fell in love with it. Yeah, there you go. It makes it
easy. And it's nice that youdidn't have like some sort of dispersal draft
or something that kind of took thecontrol out of your hands as to how
to play the haggling game there andended up in the spot you wanted to
(10:45):
beat. This team ended up verygood this year. You guys were second
place in the entire league. Sixteenand eight at every game at cchi Hell
Center looked like it was an electricatmosphere. I was at a couple of
them, loved what they were doingthere. You know, ten to twelve
thousand people almost every game. Thegames that I was at were incredibly well
attended, and like you said,over ninety five hundred on average, just
(11:07):
an incredible number considering what you're talkingabout with these established leagues in Europe.
So the team makes the playoffs,we know they're going to host the playoffs
because of the awesome attendance, andthen you go down two sets to none
in the first in the semi finalagainst the team that you felt like you
had a really good chance to beatbut had definitely you know what, they're
a competitive team, the San DiegoMojo. What is going on with the
(11:31):
team in the locker room after thatsecond set, knowing that you need to
do the reverse sweep just to keepyour season alive at that point, I
think we came into the huddle afterthat and we said, shoot, we
better start playing some better volleyball.You know, there was a lot of
nerves. I think I don't thinkit was the cleanest on our side,
but there was a lot of thingsthat I think contributed to kind of that
momentum switch going into the third.One being Sidney Hilly. She came in
(11:54):
and she just brought a calmness thatI don't know. It just made us
so much better. You guys havea lot of players. We are very
deep, a lot of talent forsure, and for us to interchangeably switch
our setters so at the year,it's pretty incredible that they can both play
at just such an incredibly high level. She was a big contributor. But
I don't think we would have wonthat match without being at home, because
(12:16):
we had ten thousand plus people andfans that were on our backs, and
I think the mojo definitely felt thatin the third, fourth, and fifth,
Yeah, and took care of businessthat I think. Was it the
fourth set that was like twenty fiveto eight or something ridiculous ridiculous? I
mean, it was a steam rollingat that point, and you guys were
able to win. We're speaking withBrook Nunaviller, who's an outside hitter for
the Supernovas here in Omaha. Andthen the championship. I didn't want to
(12:39):
say it's a foregone conclusion because didn'tGrant Rapid speech, you like, right
at the end of the season.Yes, they did. They did so.
I mean they're a good team too, and they just beat the one
seed Atlanta in the other semi final. They knew they were the underdog coming
into to the championship. The lowerBowl completely filled. Just an outstanding atmosphere
for a championship on a Saturday afternoonin May, and you guys sweep them.
(13:01):
You know, a couple of thosesets were very competitive. But what's
the atmosphere like in the locker roomas you guys are finishing up what is
an incredible season and you're winning thischampionship in Jason Derulo, you know,
one of the owners pops in andyou know, start celebrating with you guys.
Take me through that match and whathappened afterwards. That match was definitely
the most intentional and just focused thatwe've ever been. I think no matter
(13:28):
what the score was, no matterwhat point of the match, it didn't
matter. You know, we justknew that we had to keep pushing.
In a championship, anything could happen. Like you said, Grander Rapids is
a very talented team, and youguys just pulled off a reverse sweep.
Yeah, that could absolutely happen toyou, exactly. I remember after winning
the first two cents, Sidney Hillycame into the huddle and she said,
you guys were just in this situation. You know, we cannot get satisfied,
(13:50):
we cannot get settled, we cannotthink we already won. And I
just remember catch myself, like onthe court between every single point, I
told my team, I was like, keep rolling, keep rolling, keep
pushing, like, do not stop, because we got to put our foot
on the gas pedal until it's actuallyover. And I think it honestly hasn't
even sunk in yet because the sweepis crazy in the finals and just a
(14:11):
lot of really incredible things were happening, and I think I'm still on a
high. But yeah, in thechampionship, in the locker room afterwards,
you know, you have her,all of our owners, you have Jason
Drulo finally making an appearance and youknow, showing his support, which was
absolutely incredible. But it was justa pretty surreal moment because the season wasn't
easy, for sure. There's alot of ups and downs that people don't
(14:31):
see, and it was just soincredibly rewarding to get that ending. Yeah,
and you're one of the young players. There are a lot of players
that played overseas and now I thinkare relishing the opportunity to play in the
United States in a pro league.Sounds like this thing was good enough for
it to continue into next year andeven looking at adding some teams as well.
And of course we'll tackle a lotof that when we get closer.
(14:52):
But what's the future look like foryou? Oh? I, you know,
I'd love to stay here. Well, we'll see what happened in the
next couple months. You'll see,you know, some sort of news come
out. But I couldn't have askedfor a better first season, especially when
I didn't know what to expect,you know, for the for the first
season ever, this went relatively smoothlyand for there not to be as many
(15:13):
bumps as I think there should havebeen, and just to receive that fan
support, it was absolutely amazing thisseason. Well, it was amazing to
watch Brooke Unnaviller, thanks so muchfor coming in. Congratulations on the championship
and we're gonna take a picture togetherwith that trophy and put on my social
media. Perfect all right, awesome, Hey, how about that Supernovas are
your inaugural champion of the Pro VolleyballFederation and again, follow me on social
(15:35):
media Emery Songer. You can alsofollow brook Nnaviller. She's got like thousands,
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousandfollowers on all social media platforms.
But check that out you'll be ableto see this awesome giant trophy that they gave them
Speaking of celebrating, there was ateam from Omaha that celebrated a championship not
three days ago, right here inour fair city. And that is the
Omaha Supernovas from the Pro Volleyball Federationstraight sets victory over Grand Rapids to clinch
the first ever Pro Volleyball Federation title. The trophy is sitting right next to
(00:21):
Matt Case. It weighs almost asmuch as Matt Case. Almost. Yeah,
gigantic thing. And we are blessedto be joined by outside hitter for
the Supernova's Brook Nunneviller here in thestudio and Brook, welcome into the studio.
Thanks for stopping by. Oh yeah, thanks for having me. Okay,
I that is not a joke.No, it's not. The way
of that thing is actually insane.Just carrying it for my car, I'm
(00:43):
like out of breath. This isa I kind of It adds a little
bit of the mystique of like whata league is, right because you see
some of these upstart leagues in asport like professional volleyball, which it's been
a while since anybody's really given thisa real go in the United States.
It's a thing overseas a lot moreorganized. But this just you know,
(01:03):
tells me how much the people whoare in charge of the legally want to
invest in this. And obviously thecity of Omaha invested into this, playing
at CCHI Health Center, selling ten, ten to twelve thousand tickets every single
match. What about this from yourperspective, because you're a professional volleyball player,
made this a legitimate league in itsfirst year. I think I really
(01:25):
didn't know what to expect. Youknow, I got my first phone call
in May of twenty twenty three,just under a year ago now, and
I was just so incredibly impressed withhow quickly things came together. I knew
that Omaha would bring a lot ofsupport, you know. I think the
community really just are avid volleyball fans, and it's really exciting for a player
like me to play in Omaha.But our owners honestly just gave us a
(01:48):
tremendous amount of support. I mean, they're investing millions of dollars into our
team, and it's really exciting becauseoriginally they're not looking for a return.
But I think, you know,we've done a pretty good job at bringing
fans to stadium, selling tickets,and you know, doing things like this
and we're getting marketing up and Idon't know, it's just been really exciting
and the support has been incredible.We talk on this show a lot about
(02:10):
sports because I love sports. Ialso love community events and having local teams,
you know, like minor league baseballor local colleges. It makes it
really fun to follow and you feellike you have a team. Omaha being
one of the original markets that theywanted to build this pro Volleyball federation,
you know, and we asked,you know, Diane menden Hall this and
(02:31):
I've talked to Jeff Eckstrom about this. It really is the epicenter of volleyball
in this country in so many ways. And the Volleyball Day in Nebraska I
think was the quint essential moment whereyou've packed in ninety three thousand people to
watch a collegiate volleyball match. Fromyour perspective, and we'll talk about exactly
(02:53):
how you ended up here for thisleague. But what does Omaha have that
makes it so special for a volleyballaudience. I think the University of Nebraska
honestly kicks started that They've been sucha successful team for I don't know decades
now, and I mean, youlook at the ninety three thousand people that
showed up for a college game,that's insane. It broke world records.
(03:15):
And so for that to happen thislast year, and then for us to
get the opportunity to start a proleague in the same year, I think
is the reason why we had somuch success. And we already knew that
because of the University of Nebraska thatwe had that volleyball support, we had
those volleyball fans, but we didn'tknow how it would carry over to our
team, and we were very pleasantlysurprised when it was so successful. Speaking
(03:36):
with Brooke Nunnevillar, who plays forthe Omaha Supernova's an attacking position. It's
something you need if you want tohave a successful team. You're not the
only one. There are a lotof really great players. The quality of
play was like, we want thebest volleyball players available at the professional level
to play in this league. Andit's kind of a new concept for a
lot of Americans to see, Oh, professional volleyball. How did this happen?
(04:00):
And you're a young person, soI'm not one hundred percent sure if
everybody's story is going to be exactlythe same. But take me through your
volleyball journey from college and what itlooked like to try to turn pro knowing
there wasn't an established league at thatpoint, and then when they were trying
to create an established league, howyou became on the short list of people
they wanted to recruit to be apart of this. This is a really
(04:23):
interesting question because no one really knows, you know, professional volleyball in the
States, and now that they've gottena little tidbit, which is really exciting.
But before this year, it hadalways been overseas. And so the
way that my career, I guess, has looked since college is I graduated
in December of twenty twenty two fromthe University of Oregon, and then you
basically signed with an agent, youknow, and most of the agents that
(04:45):
you're signing with are overseas. Somy agent, his name is Stefano Bartocci.
He's an Italian agent. He representsa ton of Italian players, but
also a ton of American players.You signed with your agent and then they'll
start getting contracts for you. Youknow. I was looking at con originally
in Turkey in Italy, and Iended up going to finish a half season
in Turkey in Bursa, Turkey forJanuary of twenty twenty four until May of
(05:09):
twenty twenty four. So did that. I played with the national team a
little bit. I don't know ifyou've heard of Athletes Unlimited, but it's
a league that is about two anda half months and it has sports like
volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, andI'm missing one, but there's there's four
total sports. And so I gotto play in that league. It was
actually in Arizona where I grew upin the fall, so I did that
(05:30):
and then I was lucky enough tobe in Omaha Supernova. But basically,
when you're signing with the team,it usually goes through an agent and then
they're offering you a contract and you'rejust gonna, you know, decide if
you want to take that or not. Really intriguing, you have to sign
with an agent from overseas. Howdo you find the right agent? Is
there like a language barrier? Probablynot considering that they would sign so many
(05:53):
Americans, But you know, Iwould guess in my head that there are
a lot of young girls that don'teven know that this is an option until
they achieve elite status in college atthe NCAA level. Is that kind of
how that worked and how did youdecide, Okay, this person is the
person I want to represent me tohelp me figure out what my career is
(06:15):
going to look like. There aredefinitely American agents as well, Don't get
me wrong, there's plenty of them, but there's also a ton overseas,
just because that's where the established leagueshave been around the world. For me,
I'm not even gonna lie. Evenfor any top college player, we
were not very aware of professional volleyballoverseas. You really have to do research
yourself. I was talking to somany girls that were on the national team
(06:38):
and I was lucky enough to playwith them this summer before I went professional,
and I got to pick their brainsa ton about you know, who
are their agents? But do youthink of them? What have you heard
of them? And so I feellike I got a pretty good idea when
I was talking to different agents,and I probably talked to at least ten
different people before I made my decision, but yeah, I ended up choosing
mine. I've been really happy withhim, and this league has been interesting
(07:00):
because now you have that home basein America and now it's kind of interesting
going to talk to an overseas agentand then coming back to America. So
hopefully in the future we'll be ableto work more closely with them and we'll
bring more international attention here. Soyou know, it's not as big of
a barrier now, but I don'tknow. We have a league in America
and we're going to have to startrecognizing that. Sure. I want to
(07:23):
talk about the league in America,how you ended up with the Supernova specifically,
and then the season that led toa championship. We'll do that next,
So stick around. We're here withBrook Nunna Villa from the Omaha Supernova's,
the champions of the Pro Volleyball Federation. That's on the way coming up
on news Radio eleven ten Kfab andMariesung on news Radio eleven ten Kfab part
(07:46):
of a celebration of the championship forthe Omaha Supernova's in the Pro Volleyball Federation
this past weekend, and we're joinedby outside hitter Brooke Nunna Villa. And
Brook, you said, you graduatedfrom the University of Oregon turn pro.
You went to Turkey for a fewmonths, got the call to become an
Omaha super Nova. Again, I'mnot one hundred percent sure exactly how a
(08:11):
lot of that stuff works when itcomes to starting a league from complete scratch,
But how were you, you know, kind of asked it and were
you given options of teams to signwith or was it a team specifically that
was reaching out to you and justtrying to give you the best contract possible
to get you to be a partof the team. It was definitely both,
So, I mean, I wasnot very aware of what this league
would look like. I had barelyeven heard of it when I originally got
(08:35):
the texts from It was Shelton Callyerat the time for the Omaha Supernova's head
coach, and I think I hadoriginally heard about the league in January of
twenty twenty four, just very briefly. And then twenty three. You mean
it's twenty twenty. No, yes, twenty because he started playing in twenty
twenty four. No, twenty twentythree, or way is this twenty twenty?
Oh my gosh, this time,yes, you're right, twenty twenty
(08:58):
three. That it's like, wow, that they gave you time. Oh
my goodness, it's all a Hayesat this point. But in twenty twenty
three. Yes, I had originallyheard about the league in January and then
I got that phone call in May, and honestly, I was really strongly
considering going back overseas. The moneywas good, the level of competition was
great. What say atmosphere like,is it like well attended and there's a
lot of you know, fans thatare really passionate about the teams. There
(09:20):
are a lot of fans that arevery passionate about the teams. But I
will give you like a statistic thatI saw the other day. It was
top ten attendances a professional volleyball inthe world, Omaha Supernova's crush number one.
I think we averaged about ninety fivehundred this year. The second most
was the best team in Italy thisyear and they were at forty five hundred.
Wow, unbelievable. Yeah, it'spretty incredible what we were able to
(09:43):
do in this inaugural season. AndI think overseas it's just you don't have
that like big gym capacity. Youknow, you don't have a CCHI Center
like we did, and not aton of big arenas. But the fan
support is definitely there. But anyway, when I was talking to the previous
head coach at the time, itwas really interesting because I just hadn't heard
a lot about the league, andhe really sold me in a lot of
(10:03):
things, and I just didn't knowwhat this would become. But he gave
me a lot of faith in thatit could become something really big, which
it ended up being. And soI'm very grateful for this opportunity. And
basically how I got recruited as Igot a text from him, we had
a phone call, a contract camepretty shortly after, and then I signed
and then nine months later I wasin Omaha. You didn't get did any
(10:24):
other teams reach out to you?There was that Columbus head coach had,
But then Shelton beat me to aphone call, and you know, I
fell in love with it. Yeah, there you go. It makes it
easy. And it's nice that youdidn't have like some sort of dispersal draft
or something that kind of took thecontrol out of your hands as to how
to play the haggling game there andended up in the spot you wanted to
(10:45):
beat. This team ended up verygood this year. You guys were second
place in the entire league. Sixteenand eight at every game at cchi Hell
Center looked like it was an electricatmosphere. I was at a couple of
them, loved what they were doingthere. You know, ten to twelve
thousand people almost every game. Thegames that I was at were incredibly well
attended, and like you said,over ninety five hundred on average, just
(11:07):
an incredible number considering what you're talkingabout with these established leagues in Europe.
So the team makes the playoffs,we know they're going to host the playoffs
because of the awesome attendance, andthen you go down two sets to none
in the first in the semi finalagainst the team that you felt like you
had a really good chance to beatbut had definitely you know what, they're
a competitive team, the San DiegoMojo. What is going on with the
(11:31):
team in the locker room after thatsecond set, knowing that you need to
do the reverse sweep just to keepyour season alive at that point, I
think we came into the huddle afterthat and we said, shoot, we
better start playing some better volleyball.You know, there was a lot of
nerves. I think I don't thinkit was the cleanest on our side,
but there was a lot of thingsthat I think contributed to kind of that
momentum switch going into the third.One being Sidney Hilly. She came in
(11:54):
and she just brought a calmness thatI don't know. It just made us
so much better. You guys havea lot of players. We are very
deep, a lot of talent forsure, and for us to interchangeably switch
our setters so at the year,it's pretty incredible that they can both play
at just such an incredibly high level. She was a big contributor. But
I don't think we would have wonthat match without being at home, because
(12:16):
we had ten thousand plus people andfans that were on our backs, and
I think the mojo definitely felt thatin the third, fourth, and fifth,
Yeah, and took care of businessthat I think. Was it the
fourth set that was like twenty fiveto eight or something ridiculous ridiculous? I
mean, it was a steam rollingat that point, and you guys were
able to win. We're speaking withBrook Nunaviller, who's an outside hitter for
the Supernovas here in Omaha. Andthen the championship. I didn't want to
(12:39):
say it's a foregone conclusion because didn'tGrant Rapid speech, you like, right
at the end of the season.Yes, they did. They did so.
I mean they're a good team too, and they just beat the one
seed Atlanta in the other semi final. They knew they were the underdog coming
into to the championship. The lowerBowl completely filled. Just an outstanding atmosphere
for a championship on a Saturday afternoonin May, and you guys sweep them.
(13:01):
You know, a couple of thosesets were very competitive. But what's
the atmosphere like in the locker roomas you guys are finishing up what is
an incredible season and you're winning thischampionship in Jason Derulo, you know,
one of the owners pops in andyou know, start celebrating with you guys.
Take me through that match and whathappened afterwards. That match was definitely
the most intentional and just focused thatwe've ever been. I think no matter
(13:28):
what the score was, no matterwhat point of the match, it didn't
matter. You know, we justknew that we had to keep pushing.
In a championship, anything could happen. Like you said, Grander Rapids is
a very talented team, and youguys just pulled off a reverse sweep.
Yeah, that could absolutely happen toyou, exactly. I remember after winning
the first two cents, Sidney Hillycame into the huddle and she said,
you guys were just in this situation. You know, we cannot get satisfied,
(13:50):
we cannot get settled, we cannotthink we already won. And I
just remember catch myself, like onthe court between every single point, I
told my team, I was like, keep rolling, keep rolling, keep
pushing, like, do not stop, because we got to put our foot
on the gas pedal until it's actuallyover. And I think it honestly hasn't
even sunk in yet because the sweepis crazy in the finals and just a
(14:11):
lot of really incredible things were happening, and I think I'm still on a
high. But yeah, in thechampionship, in the locker room afterwards,
you know, you have her,all of our owners, you have Jason
Drulo finally making an appearance and youknow, showing his support, which was
absolutely incredible. But it was justa pretty surreal moment because the season wasn't
easy, for sure. There's alot of ups and downs that people don't
(14:31):
see, and it was just soincredibly rewarding to get that ending. Yeah,
and you're one of the young players. There are a lot of players
that played overseas and now I thinkare relishing the opportunity to play in the
United States in a pro league.Sounds like this thing was good enough for
it to continue into next year andeven looking at adding some teams as well.
And of course we'll tackle a lotof that when we get closer.
(14:52):
But what's the future look like foryou? Oh? I, you know,
I'd love to stay here. Well, we'll see what happened in the
next couple months. You'll see,you know, some sort of news come
out. But I couldn't have askedfor a better first season, especially when
I didn't know what to expect,you know, for the for the first
season ever, this went relatively smoothlyand for there not to be as many
(15:13):
bumps as I think there should havebeen, and just to receive that fan
support, it was absolutely amazing thisseason. Well, it was amazing to
watch Brooke Unnaviller, thanks so muchfor coming in. Congratulations on the championship
and we're gonna take a picture togetherwith that trophy and put on my social
media. Perfect all right, awesome, Hey, how about that Supernovas are
your inaugural champion of the Pro VolleyballFederation and again, follow me on social
(15:35):
media Emery Songer. You can alsofollow brook Nnaviller. She's got like thousands,
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousandfollowers on all social media platforms.
But check that out you'll be ableto see this awesome giant trophy that they gave them
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